The banks of the Potomac, the river that flows through Washington, DC, had a red glow on the evening of Wednesday, January 29, as ambulances and emergency services gathered in unprecedented numbers to search for survivors after a passenger flight crashed shortly before 9 pm local time.
Flight 5342, operated by PSA, a subsidiary of American Airlines, was en route from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, DC, carrying 60 passengers and four crew. It was about to land on a runway at Ronald Reagan International Airport when it collided at low altitude with a Black Hawk military helicopter. The death toll remains unknown at this stage.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) quickly confirmed the tragedy. Air traffic was halted until 5 am on Friday. A camera on the other side of the river, at the Kennedy Cultural Center, captured the scene; amid a clear sky, an explosion was visible when the two aircraft collided.
The Black Hawk helicopter, usually used in Washington to transport civilian and military VIPs, had three soldiers on board. Belonging to the Bravo Company of the 12th Aviation Battalion, based at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, the helicopter was on a training flight, according to military authorities.
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